The history of the
"Spaceview" model is a story in itself. Interested? click
here.

In 1875 Joseph Bulova, a 23-year-old Czech
immigrant, opens a small jewelry shop on Maiden Lane in New York City.

In
1950 Swiss engineer Max Hetzel joined the Bulova Watch Company in Biel, Switzerland.

In
March 1952 watchmakers Elgin and Lip, introduced electric watches. These watches
were heralded as the greatest advance in the field of watchmaking in 450 years.
Arde Bulova, who
was the president of Bulova Watch Company at the time, asked Max Hetzel to
research these new watches. Mr. Bulova was concerned that his company would lose
market share if it did not also produce a battery powered watch.Max
Hetzel reported his findings to the management of Bulova in April 1952. His
report basically stated that the new battery driven watches still used a conventional balance-wheel movement and therefore could not lead to an
improvement in accuracy. His report predicted that the newly-developed transistor would be the
key component for future electronic watches.

Bulova began
developing Accutron in 1952. Accutron is to be an electronic watch that will be guaranteed accurate
to
within 2 seconds a day, or 1 minute a month. The secret behind this inherent
accuracy will be a tuning fork which will divide each second into hundreds of
equal parts.

In
March 1953 Hetzel received the first low voltage transistors (Raytheon CK 722)
from Bulova Headquarters. These transistors and a tuning
fork frequency filter which he had previously developed, enabled
him to construct his first simple tuning fork oscillator on a piece of wood! It
had a frequency of 200 Hz, ran on a 1.5 V dry cell and used a simple ratchet
system whereby a pawl attached to a tuning fork tine pushed a ratchet wheel one
tooth forward with each cycle. The wheel had 120 teeth 1/10th of a mm long. The
first prototype watch movements were produced in Switzerland in 1955.

In 1959, Max Hetzel and William Bennett completed the development of the Accutron 214 at
Bulova Headquarters in New York.

In 1960 NASA asks Bulova to incorporate Accutron technology into
its equipment for the space program.
The CEO of Bulova at the time was Omar Bradley, 5
Star General, US Army, Retired. During those early years Accutron timing
mechanisms were used in 46 US space program missions. An Accutron watch movement sits on the moon's Sea of
Tranquility today, in an instrument placed there in 1969 by Apollo 11 astronauts, the
first men on the moon.

Mass production of the 214 began in 1960
and they were introduced to the public in November of that year.

In 1962 the Accutron 214 becomes the first
wristwatch certified for use by railroad personnel. Previously, engineers used
pocket watches which had to be frequently calibrated in order to "run the
railroads on time".

Accutron wristwatches were given to world leaders as a
presidential gift and in 1964 President Lynden
Johnson declares Accutron to be the official "Gift of State".

By 1967 Accutron clocks were the only clocks aboard
Air Force One and many instrument panel Accutrons were used in military ships
and aircraft.

The last 214's were made
in 1977. During the 17 years that tuning fork watches were made they were the
most accurate production timepieces on the Earth, and in space.